National Park Service

News about National Park Service, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jun. 30, 2015

Op-Ed article by Reed Watson and Scott Wilson highlights fact that National Park Service has extremely large backlog of deferred maintenance throughout national park system, cost of which has reached $11.5 billion; questions wisdom of Pres Obama adding more national parks and thereby stretching already strained maintenance budget; calls on Congress to pay deferred maintenance costs and to renew and expand federal agencies that take care of nation's parks. MORE

May. 19, 2015

Debate over management of indigenous tule elk population in California has cropped up again due to National Park Service survey finding that 250 elk living in penned-off reserve died between 2012 and 2014, while elk outside reserve have thrived; ranchers in Point Reyes peninsula complain that free-roaming elk are consuming drought-limited forage used by their herds, and question why elk within penned-off reserve do not have sufficient access to water. MORE

Aug. 25, 2014

Editorial praises National Park Service for imposing temporary ban on the use of airborne drones by visitors to national parks and monuments; holds proliferation of noisy devices, which are becoming increasingly affordable, had begun to impede on serenity of other visitors. MORE

Jun. 28, 2014

Officials at museum on Ellis Island express frustration at news from National Park Service that more than 21,000 objects and a million archives, moved to a storage center after Hurricane Sandy, will not be returned for nearly 18 months; museum has reopened some exhibit areas, but without many of Ellis Island's most evocative artifacts; new mechanical system that will keep objects dry and cool will not be completed until the end of 2015. MORE

May. 15, 2014

National Park Service sharpshooters cull 106 white-tailed deer in Washington's Rock Creek Park; 3,300 pounds of venison are donated to homeless shelters and other charities across capital; proliferating deer gorge on seedlings and threaten abundant vegetation in park. MORE

May. 12, 2014

National Mall's installation of expensive new turf creates identity crisis, setting off deeper debate about whether mall should remain utilitarian gathering place or more pristine landscape; National Park Service has established strict rules with arrival of new lawn, including limits on festivals and concerts, and even restrictions on activities like pickup softball games and Frisbee. MORE

Apr. 25, 2014

National Park Service and Yosemite Conservancy are teaming on $36 million project to improve lot of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park; philanthropic organizations known for lending helping hand are funneling millions of dollars into nation's major national parks. MORE

Apr. 18, 2014

Timothy Egan Op-Ed column examines why Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who owes the fededral government about $1 million in fines and fees after grazing his cattle on National Park Service land for more than 20 years, has supporters on the far-right; contends Bundy is misusing a public resource, and criticizes his supporters, like Sen Rand Paul, for using the issue as a political tool. MORE

Nov. 26, 2013

National Park Service acknowledges contamination at Great Kills Park on Staten Island is more extensive than originally believed; 488-acre park was depository for 15 million cubic yards of fill in the 1940s and 1950s, including medical and sanitary waste, some of which contained radium; more than half the park has shown some degree of radioactivity; lengthy process now begins to map contamination and devise a cleanup plan. MORE

Nov. 9, 2013

National Park Service is looking for tenants to invest in and help save 35 historic buildings, including genteel quarters of lieutenants and captains, at Fort Hancock, former military base in Sandy Hook, NJ. MORE

Oct. 25, 2013

National Park Service announces that it will reopen Ellis Island to visitors, one year after it was swamped by Hurricane Sandy; much of damage remains unrepaired, but visitors will be able to tour main floor of immigration museum, despite fact that most of museum's artifacts remain in storage in Maryland. MORE

Oct. 14, 2013

Statue of Liberty reopens amidst federal government shutdown, under deal negotiated by Gov Andrew M Cuomo; New York State will pay National Park Service $61,600 per day to keep monument open. MORE

Oct. 3, 2013

Effects of the federal government shutdown are felt at Jacob Riis Park in Queens, where visitors hoping to get extra beach day during unseasonably warm weather are turned away; beach is run by National Park Service, meaning it is officially closed, with no lifeguards on duty. MORE

Sep. 6, 2013

National Park Service is scrambling to rethink and redefine itself to growing number of Americans from minority populations who do not use the parks in way that previous--mostly white--generations did; only about one in five visitors to national park site is nonwhite, and only about 1 in 10 is Hispanic. MORE

Jul. 29, 2013

National Park Service is proposing significant makeover of Yosemite National Park that would change how visitors experience the park, especially seven-mile-long Yosemite Valley at its heart; plan would restore more than 200 acres of meadows, reduce traffic congestion and close rental facilities for bicycling and other activities. MORE

Jun. 4, 2013

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announces that National Park Service will resume security monitoring for the Statue of Liberty in Battery Park, rather than move it to Ellis Island; New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W Kelly had long objected to the planned move, saying he was uncomfortable allowing tourists to board ferries to the statue without first being checked on land for weapons and explosives. MORE

May. 28, 2013

Sen Charles E Schumer calls on National Park Service to scrap what he says is a dangerous new security plan for Statue of Liberty that involves security checkpoints at central points on Liberty and Ellis islands; Schumer argues that screening visitors after they have arrived leaves tourists already on the islands, and on the ferries transporting them to sites, far more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. MORE

May. 9, 2013

Op-Ed article by wildlife and environmental experts John A Vucetich, Rolf O Peterson and Michael P Nelson on National Park Service decision on whether to save wolf population in Isle Royale National Park; holds not meddling with nature is central to America's modern wilderness tradition but urges agency to introduce new wolves to island to keep population of moose in check. MORE

Feb. 28, 2013

National Park Service reports that rangers will be patrolling the beaches of Fire Island over the upcoming summer season, enforcing a 1984 New York ban on public nudity; officials say reason for plan to begin enforcing ban is because crowds have grown larger in recent years and behavior coarser. MORE

Dec. 11, 2012

Gateway National Recreation Area remains mostly closed, six weeks after being pummeled by Hurricane Sandy, as the National Park Service continues to clean up and restore essential elements like drinking water and sewage treatment; several hundred federal employees have supplemented Gateway’s staff for the effort, working in two-week shifts. MORE

Aug. 22, 2012

Renovation work that began in the 1990s on an Art Deco bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways has never been finished, much to the frustration of the public; nearly $20 million was spent on the 40,000-square-foot bathhouse before the project was seemingly abandoned; Gateway National Recreation Area officials are hopeful that recent agreement between National Park Service and New York City to jointly manage city and federal parks could mean a source of funding to complete renovations. MORE

Jul. 18, 2012

New York City and the National Park Service formalize a partnership to jointly manage more than 10,000 acres of parkland in and around Jamaica Bay; joint venture will improve access, foster research, run education and recreation programs and plan restoration projects for the bay, an important estuary and migratory stopover for hundreds of species of birds. MORE

May. 4, 2012

Edward Rothstein Critic's Notebook on the Roosevelt Ride, a free shuttle bus run by the National Park Service that takes visitors to the Hyde Park, NY, sites where Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt lived and began transforming the way presidents interact with the public. MORE

Apr. 25, 2012

National Parks Service says the Veterans of Foreign Wars can restore a cross in the Mojave Desert under a settlement that ends a decade-old legal battle; Mojave National Preserve will give up the acre of land in exchange for five acres of privately owned property within the park's boundaries. MORE

Feb. 29, 2012

National Park Service says white-tailed deer are endangering Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC; they plan to thin the herd with sharpshooters, but proposal is contentious. MORE

Feb. 7, 2012

National Park Service agrees to let Grand Canyon National Park impose a ban on small, disposable water containers, which make up about 20 percent of the park's overall waste stream. MORE

Jan. 31, 2012

Demonstrators affiliated with the Occupy movement ignore the National Park Service's deadline to remove their gear or depart from two downtown parks in Washington, DC; despite the deadline, police keep a low profile and make no immediate effort to clamp down on the campers. MORE

Nov. 19, 2011

National Park Service decision to put a Grand Teton National Park dude ranch concession up for bid leads to lawsuit by John F Turner and his family, who have operated the Triangle X ranch there without competition since 1926; Turner claims that law violates contractual promises made when the family sold the property to John D Rockefeller's company in 1929. MORE